The SOCRATES project

SOCRATES is a training program for 15 PhD students,
created to develop the field of Social Robotics with an application focus on
Robotics in Eldercare.We are currently recruiting PhD students!Welcome to apply HERE!

The heart and soul of SOCRATES is our 15 PhD students! To support them and their training, a consortium comprising seven universities/research institutes, three industrial partners, two end-user oriented partners, and three business oriented organisations has been formed. More information in the ABOUT menu above.

The research in Social Robotics has a common theme of Interaction Quality, which is a concept for characterization of how a specific mode of interaction is fit for a given task, situation, and user. Interaction Quality often changes, for instance if an older adult gets tired and loses focus when interacting with a robot. Interaction Quality also depends on the robot’s functionality and design. By slowing down the speed of the robot, Interaction Quality can be maintained. In general, Interaction Quality is a complex interplay between several performance measures and design parameters. In SOCRATES we address these issues from a range of perspectives in five research workpackages (more information can be found in the RESEARCH menu above):

Intention: new techniques to infer human goals and intention from natural language and video analysis

Adaptivity: techniques to adapt a robot’s behaviour to user needs

Design: Novel design methods for hardware, interfaces, and safety

Acceptance: Procedures for evaluation of user acceptance

Additional value and impact is generated by the unique multidisciplinary collaboration between academic disciplines that normally do not work together; computer science, cognitive science, biomechanics, ethics, social psychology, and social science. Intersectoral collaboration between academia, caregivers, business developers, and robot manufacturers will further strengthen novelty and impact by ensuring that relevant needs are addressed, and that research result are both economically and technically feasible.

SOCRATES is an MSCA-ITN-2016 – Innovative Training Networks funded by EC under grant
agreement No 721619

If you are looking for the ETN for the Sustainable, zero-waste valorisation of critical-metal- containing industrial process residues, Project 721385, please click here